Main menu

When Hurricane Sandy battered the east coast in 2012, dozens of elderly, disabled people were evacuated from their living facilities. Some lost their possessions while others were temporarily relocated to cramped, dangerous living quarters. Now, they’re being asked to repay the government for the aid money they received.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has asked at least a dozen residents of Belle Harbor Manor, an assisted living facility, to repay them. Robert Rosenberg, 61, has a spinal disability and other chronic health problems. He’s been asked to pay FEMA $2,486 after it was decided he was ineligible to receive aid – long after Hurricane Sandy.

"We're on a fixed income," Rosenberg told Fox News. "I don't have that kind of money!"

FEMA justified their demands in a letter to the residents of Bell Harbor Manor, which said that the money was intended for temporary housing, but that never happened because the residents were moved from one state-funded shelter to another.

Popular Video

A police officer saw a young black couple drive by and pulled them over. What he did next left them stunned:

Popular Video

A police officer saw a young black couple drive by and pulled them over. What he did next left them stunned:

During the storm, many of the residents were sent to live in hotels, where they slept four to a room. The area they stayed in was so crime-riddled, they were advised not to go outside at night. Afterwards, the residents, many of whom are mentally ill, were sent to a halfway house on the grounds of a partly abandoned psychiatric hospital in Queens, where they bunked on cots and were barred from having visitors in their rooms.

Rosenberg wasn’t aware he could only spend the money on housing. He said FEMA workers never explained the restrictions, so he used part of the money to buy food and clothing, both of which were hard to find after the storm.

“Everyone asked, 'Do we have to pay this back later on? Is it a loan?' They said, 'No. It's a gift from Obama,'" he said. "If I wasn't eligible, then why give it to me in the first place? They knew we were living in an adult home. They knew our shelter was being paid for by the state. It's not like we lied on the application.”

FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said the agency was required by law to recoup improper payments but did not directly address the residents' situation.